Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Catsuits, Gadzooks!

Dava Newman, professor of aeronautics, astronautics and engineering systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology… just unveiled a promising new prototype called the BioSuit…. The form-fitting style of the new suit… keeps astronauts alive by creating what scientists call mechanical counter pressure, which balances out the vacuum pull of space. The spacesuits worn today use gas pressurization — they create a small Earth-like atmosphere inside the suit, which exerts the appropriate force on the astronaut's body. The system works, but many scientists consider it to be out of date because it requires bulky equipment and a life support system that weighs almost 300 lbs…. The new suit creates the same kind of pressurized environment, simply by wrapping layers of specially patterned nylon and Spandex fabric tightly around the body, a method that Newman's been working on for seven years.